Stay the Course

“Home schooling is absolutely necessary for the survival of the Catholic Church in America.”- Fr. John Hardon, S.J.

Home education is often characterized merely as a vibrant alternative to institutional schools. At home, we assert, children are given opportunities to explore their interests and for their intellects to soar in a supportive learning environment. Later when family circumstances change, or the child expresses an interest, students often are enrolled in public school to further their educational experience. Whatever fits the needs of the child, or family, at a particular time is seen to be paramount. But that is not the case, according to Fr. John Hardon, as quoted above.

Today, even more than during Father’s lifetime, government schools might be characterized as toxic, and Catholic homeschooling may be the only antidote. Persevering in home education is not a vibrant option, but rather a critical necessity worthy of our most sacrificial efforts. In most cases, enrolling your children in government schools should be a last resort. Why? There is overwhelming evidence that, for decades, government schools have undermined the efforts of parents, and churches to pass on sincerely, even dearly, held religious, moral, and civic values. This preeminence of the influence of schools over the formation of children has accelerated at an alarming rate during the present political climate.

Just consider; according to the Maryland State Board of Education, “Tolerance of sexual diversity is a civic virtue.” While they admit that parents have the right to control their children’s education, they claim this role is not absolute and cannot trump the state’s right to teach “civic virtue.”

New York and California take this philosophy even further. Both now have so-called “same-sex marriage” and government schools in those states are busily indoctrinating children to believe that alternative families are not only acceptable, but in every way the equivalent of traditional families. In California, state law specifically prohibits schools from presenting any advantage of traditional family structures. Districts in many states are busing children to gay pride parades, reading about Papa Bear, Daddy Bear and Baby Bear, role-playing, and hosting in-school gay pride events. Often parents are given no notification, and are not allowed to opt their children out anyway. In my Illinois hometown, the local government high school hosts a Day of Silence where neither the students not the teachers speak out loud because “gays have been silenced” in society.The social engineering efforts of government schools are not restricted to gay and lesbian lifestyles. Public high schools all over the United States host V Day each February 14 where high school girls are encouraged to celebrate – uh, their lady parts – as a way to end violence against women. Activities include songs and poetry readings related to the subject, and the sale of chocolate lollipops molded into – well, you know. While one might think celebrating women’s brains might be more effective to end domestic battery, this coarse and vulgar event is gaining more followers every year.

Example of a poster found
in Toronto public schools

Government schools do not restrict their brave new world activities to human sexuality. Nineteen out of every twenty Texas school districts use CSCOPE, an online curriculum, which does not allow parents access to see what their children are being taught, and also restricts teachers from deviating from its standards. Children are not taught phonics, hear that Wicca, Islam and Christianity are comparable and harmonious religions, and in 6th grade are asked to design a flag for a new imaginary Communist/socialist nation.Want to learn more? Start your research at: http://www.missourieducationwatchdog.com/2013/02/the-similarities-between-cscope-and.html.

If I haven’t scared you enough, the same team that worked on CSCOPE is also responsible for the Common Core Curriculum, a virtual federal takeover of American education. It is being implemented in all but a handful of states. It’s not that Fr. Hardon was wrong, but having died in 2000, he could not foresee our present situation, and thus did not go far enough. Catholic homeschooling is absolutely necessary for the survival of the Catholic Church in America, and indeed essential for the survival of the United States of America itself.